A group of Karate students were practicing kumite. Because space in the dojo was limited, they were in close proximity. These students trained hard and were pretty good at kumite... but they all wore jewelry.

Sally executed a flying side kick. Her toe ring got caught on David's earring. As Sally landed on the ground, David's head smashed on the cement floor. Sally tripped over his body and hit June in the back. June's necklace flew up and her pendant poked her partner Sam in the eye and became snagged on his eyebrow ring. When Sam reached up in pain, it tugged June forward. She bent forward and Sam flipped over her back, landing on Sally and David, who screamed in pain. Their Sensei, William, came running. Because by now there was blood on the floor, he slid into the group, his tongue stud becoming caught in Catherine's watch. Catherine had come to help too. As she tried and tried to pull her watch off her Sensei's tongue stud, her belt flipped up. A medal on her belt (earned at a recent tournament) popped loose and the sharp pin beneath it poked her Sensei on the nose. Just then, Bob showed up and started trying to help people up. Because everyone's jewelry was tangled, they yelled in pain. Sally pushed Bob to try to stop him from lifting her up. She hit him with such force that his heavy black ear gauges flew out, right into Sally's mouth. She instantly started choking.

Finally, the twisted mass of injured, bleeding, snagged, and poked Karate students got to their feet, but fell out a window right into a volcano (because they were here in Hawaii).

The moral of the story is... if you wear jewelry when you practice Karate you will fall into a volcano.

Monthly Archives

"Karate Jutsu" means "China Hand art". Karate came to Okinawa from China.
Only in the 1930s or so, was the term "Karate" changed to mean "Empty Hand".
"China Hand" was used in Hawaii until after World War II, and is still used in some dojo.